Question

Reimbursing an Employee and Billing the Customer for the Charge

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
May 20, 2024
2 replies
24 views

How do I create an expense for one of my employees and mark it as both billable and reimbursable?

For example; my employee spent $50 at Home Depot with their own CC for supplies need on a job for a customer.

Typically the employee sends me the receipt and I reimburse them directly in payroll. I then add the expense to the invoice I have created for the customer. This has been confusing and does keep track of everything correctly.

I have seen posts that when creating an expense there should be a box to check as 'Reimburse' but I have not seen this option. Also, when creating an expense claim I do not have the option to create one for my employees, only myself.

As a note, I do not want my employees creating expense claims themselves so is there another way to track this?

QuickBooks Online

A

Aldren18

QuickBooks Team

I appreciate you for providing me with the complete details, @SV97. I want to share information on properly tracking billable expenses and reimbursing your employees.

Creating an expense for your employee as billable and reimbursing them can be done separately in QuickBooks Online. The reimburse option on the expense page is not available, you'll need to reimburse the employee through payroll instead.

Here's how you can create an expense and mark it as billable.

Step 1: Turn on the Billable Expense feature:

Go to the Gear icon in the upper left and select Account and Settings.
Hit on the Expenses tab.
From the Bills and Expenses section, click on Edit. Then, enable the Make expenses and items billable option.
Click Save to save the changes.

Step 2: Create a billable expense:

Go to + New and choose Expense.
Choose the payee.
Input the description and amount of the expense, and then check the Billable checkbox.
In the Customer column, pick the customer you'd like to bill for this expense.
Enter all the necessary details, then click Save and close.

Then, here's how you can reimburse your employees.

Go to Payroll, then click on Employees.
Choose your employee.
From Pay types, click on Edit.
Scroll to the Additional Pay Types section and Select Reimbursement.
Hit on Save.
Once done, add it to your paycheck when you run the payroll.

Furthermore, I'll share these links as your further reference in running payroll in QBO:

Keep in touch if you have other questions about running payroll in QBO. The Community is more than willing to lend you a hand. Stay safe, and have a great day ahead.

L

lmoore2

It appears that you create the expense to bill the customer, then by reimbursing the employee, you create another expense. The client cancels out the expense you created for the invoice, but you still have the expense created by paying your employee, which is incorrect. How do you link the payroll reimbursement to the invoice?

J

Jelayca V

QuickBooks Team

Hi there, @lmoore2. I see why this feels off, and you’re right to call it out. Indeed, it will come off as a double expense when you create a paycheck with both reimbursement and a regular check.

If you have already reimbursed the employee through a paycheck, you do not need to create a billable expense or check to avoid duplicate entries.

While you can no longer directly link the payroll reimbursement of the employee to the customer’s invoice, you can offset the expense itself by creating a non-inventory or service item and adding it to the invoice. When setting this up, ensure that you use the payroll expense account associated with your reimbursement item.

To ensure the reimbursement process fits your business needs, I recommend checking with your accountant. In the future, you'll want to create a separate check or expense and make it billable and include it in the invoice. For more detailed information, check out this article: Reimburse an employee.

Please don't hesitate to reply below if you have any further questions. I'm here to help.